


All Pity The Fallen King

by GalaxyGhosty



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, F/M, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 07:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyGhosty/pseuds/GalaxyGhosty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day the court sorcerer dies is the day that the kingdom falls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Pity The Fallen King

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by something I read a long time ago, though I don't remember where it was I read it. Someone had talked about Arthur becoming like Uther in the event of Merlin's death. I felt like it would be worth trying out, at least. 
> 
> I don't actually know why I wrote it in the style I did, the no-name-but-title sort of style. I wanted to leave it as ambiguous as possible, deciding to tell the stories in short phrases and words that would eventually reach the end. 
> 
> Anyway, I do hope everyone enjoys this as much as I enjoyed writing it (because despite how said, I know I did!)

The day the court sorcerer dies is the day that the kingdom falls.

_(It's a slow process. No one sees it, at first. How could they?)_

The king grieves, locking himself in his rooms for days on end after the funeral, scarcely eating or sleeping, so the physician says, only allowing entry for his sister. No knights are allowed inside, none of his council or his friends. The servants whisper in hushed voices that they can hear the king crying. 

_(Of course he cries—it was no secret to anyone that the court sorcerer and the king were lovers.)_

When the king emerges from his rooms, four days after, his face is stoic and cold, orders clear and crystal, never leaving room for argument. Everyone bows their heads to him, and even the council is wary, and polite, scarcely challenging him. He is a changed man, as everyone is when someone they love dies. He drills his knights ruthlessly, close to the brink of collapse at some points, deals with criminals swiftly and cruelly (the punishment is never unjust, but sometimes, _sometimes_ it is), and no new court sorcerer is put in the old one's place. The position remains vacant.

_(Everyone wonders about this. The king's sister is a sorceress, so why is she not put into the position?)_

The court sorcerer's rooms are locked. No one is to go inside. 

_(The one man who was found close to his rooms is given a rather loud tongue lashing. No one else tries to go anywhere near it.)_

The first person who mentions his name is locked in the dungeons for a night. The harshness of winter does the criminal justice (but since when is saying the court sorcerer's name a crime?) The second person is locked in the dungeon for two nights. The third is flogged for treason (but why, why treason?) The fourth is banished. 

_(There is no fifth. No one wants to figure out what the next step is.)_

People begin to wonder. They become confused. But no one questions it. The king remains a good king. He protects the kingdom—the kingdom prospers. Their allies are strong and no war is brewing, or teetering on the edge. The people live comfortably and in no fear—even the outer villages are protected, not starving and cared for. Patrols find few sets of bandits and virtually no beasts, magical or otherwise. 

But the king slowly becomes more distant. He stops training his knights, leaving it to his first in command. He begins to make decisions on his own, making frivolous proclamations without the approval of his council. Treaties are signed but broken, tensions strained and taxes are increased. 

People become restless. Whispers of uncertainty begin. What is happening to the kingdom?

_(Was this not how it started with their previous king, after the loss of the queen?)_

His face is rarely seen anymore, the king's. Where he would once ride through the city, ride through the kingdom, surveying the land, getting to know his citizens, he rarely leaves the castle. He uses magic less and less for their everyday problems, scarcely allowing anyone to use it in his presence. The first boy who does is dismissed from the court the next day. The guards see him to the gates at first light. 

_(The fifth person finally mentions the late court sorcerer. He's not seen again.)_

Until now, no one really knows what happened to the late court sorcerer; how he died. The rumors begin, threads of truth perhaps woven in. He was killed by an assassin—but no, the court sorcerer was stronger. He was killed protecting the king in a vicious brawl—it is plausible, but surely, the people would know of an attack on their king? There was treason, and when it was discovered, the court sorcerer had to be disposed of? No, still not right. The court sorcerer betrayed the king? Never, the kingdom murmurs. The court sorcerer would never betray the king. 

The lady of the court whispers the truth later into the ears of anyone who will listen. Her words spread like wildfire throughout the kingdom. He died using his magic to heal the king. The king had been sick for some time now, but it hadn't been an illness of the body—rather of the mind. The court sorcerer had given his life to make sure that his king ruled on. 

_(Although, no one could help but wonder—would it have been better for the king to have been mad instead, with the court sorcerer still alive?)_

The first execution of a sorcerer happens three months after the court sorcerer's death. The king proclaims that he's committed treason, but no one really knows what he's done. There was not even the slightest hint that the boy had done anything other than serve Camelot. He's burned at the stake at dawn, and the king watches with empty eyes as the boy burns, screaming that he's innocent until his the flames engulf his words.

_(There are rumors of unease from within the palace walls, whispers of fights between the king and his sister, pleas from the lady and her knight, from his first in command, but he listens to no one. None of them.)_

Executions start to become more frequent, most of the time sorcerers, sometimes not. The executions bleed into the fourth month and the fifth month, sliding into the sixth. Murmurs of discomfort begin slowly at first, but then become more worrisome, especially when treason turns into having magic.

_(Haven't they been here before?)_

Eight months after the court sorcerer's death, the king's sister is imprisoned below the castle for threatening the king. (Or was it simply speaking out against his actions?) She fights them but even she is no match for the knights. The first in command is imprisoned in Camelot's dungeons, though no one knows why. No one asks.

_(It's because he tried to free her. Or maybe it was because he drew his sword against the king, demanding that she be freed.)_

Three days later, the lady and her knight are also imprisoned. There is no whisper of why. The kingdom grows fearful. Fearful still, following the imprisonment of the council, the druids are rounded up and brought to the castle. They are not seen again.

_(The late court sorcerer's knight flees Camelot, somewhere east, where no one will find him.)_

When the pyre is built, they should worry. But they do not. Until the druids appear again, and are all burned alive for their crimes (what crimes, though? They will always wonder). If the barest hint of a magic user is noticed, they are captured and brought before the king, where he will pass swift judgment on them. (What judgment is there to be made?)

_(The young girl is luckier than most. She is beheaded at noon.)_

It has been one year, eleven days, and six hours when the king proclaims that magic is outlawed in Camelot. Anyone caught practicing magic will be executed as traitors to the crown. 

_(Haven't they been here before?)_

It is in the ninth year of King Arthur's reign that the kingdom realizes he's become the exact man his father was. A broken, cold king who's lost the thing that mattered to him.

**Author's Note:**

> In case no one figured them all out:
> 
> The King - Arthur  
> The Late Court Sorcerer - Merlin  
> The King's Sister - Morgana  
> The Lady of the Court - Gwen  
> The Lady's Knight - Lancelot  
> The First in Command - Leon  
> The Late Court Sorcerer's Knight - Gwaine
> 
> And, as always, feedback is appreciated!


End file.
